I. Intro:
A. Mohammad Ali, the great boxer, also was renowned for his cocky quick-wit, saying things like, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, and it is hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.” My favorite: “I should be a postage stamp. That's the only way I'll ever get licked.” The day finally arrived when someone got the best of him. Just before takeoff one day, a flight attendant asked Ali to fasten his seat belt. He smarted off: “Superman don't need no seat belt.” The attendant replied “Superman don't need no airplane either.”
B. After all the nice things he’s said about how good the church in Philippi was doing, he wants them to remember where they came from, where they are now, how they got there, and who it is who brought them along.
II. Start at the Top (vv.1-2)
A. Paul is leveraging his genuine love for this church with an exhortation to live in unity with Christ… and is kind of “guilting” them (“complete my joy” = “don’t let me down”)
B. Paul connects things in these verses:
1. “Any encouragement in Christ” -> “being of the same mind” (he’ll bring this up later): if we are all listening to Jesus with pure hearts, we’ll learn the same truth
2. “Any comfort from love” -> “having the same love”: just as Jesus gently loves us, we should gently love each other
3. “Any participation in the Spirit” -> “being in full accord”: as Jesus fully invests His Spirit in us, we become unified
4. “Any affection and sympathy” -> “(being) of one mind” (or “of one soul”)
III. What are You Looking At? (vv.3-4)
A. Paul realizes that just telling them NOT to be arrogant or conceited is forgettable, but telling them exactly how to abase themselves? No one forgets that lesson.
B. Our habit is to compare ourselves to others to elevate ourselves; Paul says to turn that around and assume they’re more important
1. During World War II, Winston Churchill was awarding the Victoria Cross to an Air Force sergeant who had climbed out onto the wing of his bomber with only a rope attached to his waist – while it was 13,000 feet in the air. His efforts saved both the plane and his fellow crewmembers.
At the ceremony, the airman was so overwhelmed by Churchill’s presence that he could barely speak. Churchill observed this and said, “You must be very humble and awkward in my presence,” to which the sergeant replied, “Yes, sir.”
Then the Prime Minister responded, “Then you can imagine how humble and awkward I feel in yours.”
C. Sometimes we need to learn that our calling is to meet other’s needs ahead of our own.
1. Watchman Nee used to tell of a Chinese Christian who was a poor rice farmer. Every day, he would fill his rice patties with water only to find out that his neighbor, who was not a Christian, would drain the water into his own rice patties. For a while, the Christian ignored this offense, but soon realized that it would be his financial ruin. He prayed for a Christian way to handle this problem. He came upon a solution. He got up early the next day and filled his neighbor’s field first and then filled his own. This act of selflessness caused his neighbor to become a Christian.
IV. A New Mindset (vv.5-11)
A. Think Like Jesus (vv.5-7)
1. We have a non-expiring membership card to the knowledge of God (v.5)
2. Jesus’ Example
a. “in the form of God”—had God’s actual eternal nature and essence
b. “equality with God”—not “at the same level,” but in the Greek, identical—in every sense, Jesus is God
c. “a thing to be grasped”—stolen or had by ill-gotten gains—Jesus was not making false claims to deity
d. “made Himself nothing”
1) Jesus willfully suspended His divine rights, but this did not make Him not God…
2) No one could do it to Him, He had to volunteer
e. “taking the form of a servant”—same word “essence”: he actually was born into the servant class
f. “likeness of men”—not just appearance of a human body, but all the difficulties that come with actually having a human body
B. Live Like Jesus (v.8)
1. Paul now shifts the focus on Jesus from being God to being a human
a. “in human form”—not just a repetition of earlier “form” statements—Jesus was human from a human perspective
2. Jesus’ incarnation was just the beginning of Jesus’ debasement
a. “he humbled himself”—after the incarnation, he further humbled himself to the abuse of human beings
b. “obedient…death”—Jesus not only took debasement, the Author of life submitted Himself to death
1) Sin is what kills us… but if Jesus never sinned, how could He die?
2) This is a profound mystery that is symbolized in the scapegoat: our sins were counted against Jesus, so we didn’t pay for them—this is what brought Him death
c. “death on a cross”—the worst, lowest, most painful, most humiliating way to die
C. Win Like Jesus (vv.9-11)
1. Because of His obedience, God linked Jesus’ humiliation and exaltation
a. “highly exalted Him”—the early apostles saw Jesus’ exaltation as being fourfold:
1) Resurrection—return to life, triumph over death
2) Coronation—His deity fully restored
3) Intercession—Jesus’ job as our high priest
4) Ascension—returning to the Father’s right hand
5) This exaltation was not about Christ’s nature or place in the Trinity, but in his identity as the God-Man
b. “name… above every name”—this is “Lord” (NT synonym for OT description of God—“I AM” was described as “THE NAME”)
c. “at the name of Jesus”—“Jesus” now gets all the benefits of THE NAME
1. “in heaven”—angelic hosts
2. “on earth”—all people and creation at the end of time
3. “under the earth”—not just the devil and demons, but mainly all who have every lived (buried)
d. “confess”—to testify in open court, with no opportunity to deny or confuse the terminology
e. “to the glory of God the Father”—the entire purpose of Christ’s exaltation and ministry… and it’s ours, too
V. Conclusion
A. Be confident that when you are pursuing identity with Christ, it will put you at odds with the world, but will also help you easily identify with—and be identifiable by—God’s people, and this identity will be marked by mutual love
B. The call to put ourselves second is not natural and goes against our inborn drive, but this is the primary way we exemplify Jesus, and is the only way He can and will use us
C. If Jesus would allow Himself to be taken down a peg, you and I don’t deserve any better
D. On the other hand, God rewards those who will allow themselves to be laid low—He did this for Jesus, and according to verse 1, this is ours in Christ Jesus, too
